Thursday, December 6, 2012

Bella Rudenko

Here's a chirpy little spring-like ditty from Ukraine for a cold, grey, and moist December evening in Seattle. As you can see for yourself in the LP notes below, "Ballad of the Nightingale" was composed by Anatoly Kos-Anatolskyi; that's V. Anatonov working some fast-fingered flute magic, and the dramatically gifted Bella (or Bela) Rudenko does the warbling. You can read this lovely Ukrainian coloratura soprano's possibly outdated and ideologically biased biography here, and go here to ponder whether or not this could be the very same Bela Rudenko who's currently on staff at the Moscow P. I. Tchaikovsky Conservatory. I wonder why these kinds of songs never make it to the United States of American Hit Parade. One of the best things about this record is the woman on the cover who's sticking out her tongue.